Driving a Seven in modern day Traffic

[Dave Mann]

Apart from giving colleagues a lift I've never given strangers a lift for the same reasons as Reckless. Soon after I started work for an engine builder I also got married and moved into our new home which involved a different route to work and one morning I arrived in work to find the boss not there. He eventually turned up after a couple of hours late and asked where had I been, he'd broken down and waited for me to give him a lift. So after he calmed down I explained i used a different route.

[AustinWood]

Move to The Scottish Borders. The Austin is no problem at all. There are no dual carriageways or motorways. I've always found the seven's excellent in town, certainly Edinburgh works well.

We have all LED lights, plus brake lights & indicators which are essential. I fitted an Andes 2nd Gear, so we can reach 40 in 2nd and hillclimbing is no problem.
No problem from other traffic, pedestrians seem to be very pleased to see the car.
2 weeks ago we did a 65 mile tour round The Borders. We came up behind 2 motorbikes who turned off and were overtaken by 2 police bikes. Other than that we held up no-one and were not held up by any other traffic, of which there was very little.
Delightful motoring in beautiful surroundings.

[andrew34ruby]

It seems such a shame that hitch-hiking is no longer a thing. Even twenty years ago I found it impossible to get lifts, no-one stopped. But fifty odd years ago it was a useful mode of transport. At age fifteen and sixteen it was very useful. Half a dozen times I hitched the sixty mile return journey to watch motor racing at Croft Autodrome. And many times I hitched thirty miles each way to stay with my older brother for a few days. I met various interesting people and had interesting conversations. When driving a few years later I stopped for any hitchers that I came across.

[Ivor Hawkins]

About forty odd years ago, I stopped to pick up a hitch hiker who suffered atrocious BO, even with the windows down, it almost made my eyes water...after that, never again!

Nowadays, if another old car driver was broken down and needed a lift, I would be happy to help and hope his personal hygiene was up to snuff...

[Dave Mann]

Ah That's a different story Ivor I've stopped to fix quite a few Sevens over the years.

[Duncan Grimmond]

I regularly hitched from Birmingham to Harrogate for weekends home from college in the early 1970s having done several summer holidays hitching around Europe. I had such good experiences (and improved my foreign languages so much) that I saw it as an obligation to reciprocate for the kindness (wined, dined, accommodated etc) I received. The experiences made me a confirmed Europhile.
My best lift ever was a "oner" from Thessalonika to Trieste.

[Chris KC]

I regularly hitched from Birmingham to Harrogate for weekends home from college in the early 1970s having done several summer holidays hitching around Europe. I had such good experiences (and improved my foreign languages so much) that I saw it as an obligation to reciprocate for the kindness (wined, dined, accommodated etc) I received. The experiences made me a confirmed Europhile.
My best lift ever was a "oner" from Thessalonika to Trieste.

My experience has been much the same Duncan. Whilst I always prepared for the worst, and would encourage others to do so, I have in fact encountered overwhelming kindness on my various travels far more often than any sort of unpleasantness - to the extent that coming home often feels thoroughly miserable.

 
I did my share of hitch-hiking in my student days and met some lovely people. The main reason I wouldn't care to do it again is that not all of them were competent drivers (like the American guy who tried to pull a U-turn on the M1) & on occasions I felt safer walking.

[Mike Costigan]

Oh dear, that has brought back memories I thought were long forgotten! I once hitched a lift with  man, perhaps in his early thirties, who only seemed to have an on/off switch for an accelerator pedal in his BMC 1100, and who insisted on indicating left every time he went to overtake someone. I had nightmares for years afterwards!

[Charles P]

I regularly hitched from Birmingham to Harrogate for weekends home from college in the early 1970s having done several summer holidays hitching around Europe. I had such good experiences (and improved my foreign languages so much) that I saw it as an obligation to reciprocate for the kindness (wined, dined, accommodated etc) I received. The experiences made me a confirmed Europhile.
My best lift ever was a "oner" from Thessalonika to Trieste.

I hitched around Europe in my sixth form years and must have given my poor mother sleepless nights.

Lots of decent lifts but never from U.K. plated cars, despite the GB sticker on my rucksack. The chap who gave me a lift from Lyon to Clermont Ferrand and thought nothing of using the coned off roadworks lane on the autoroute for overtaking did get me very, very worried. 

C

[squeak]

In the sixties my wife and I hitched from Tyrol to London (and return) for a friends wedding. In France a passing van full of gendarmes pulled up 100 yards ahead and proceeded to walk back. The following car saw our distress and pulled over in between, we got in smartly and left. Those days in summer the streets in Europe were crawling with hoards of backpackers . 
I would pick up hitchers today to give thanks for the mostly great memories, but you don't see many now.